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Continental Intraplate Earthquakes of Myanmar

Research · May 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4864.1446

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Continental Intraplate Earthquakes of Myanmar

Hla Hla Aung

Myanmar Earthquake Committee
MES Building, Hlaing University Campus
Yangon, Myanmar
Email: hhlaaung@gmail.com

Introduction
The Yangon Earthquake (M=7, 1927); the Pagan Earthquake (M=6.8, 1975); the
Taungdwingyi Earthquake (M=6.6, depth-10 km(NEIC), 2003) and the Thayet
Earthquake (M=5.4, depth-14 km (USGS), 2007) are the significant earthquakes which
have occurred in plate-interior setting. The earliest earthquakes on record in “Geology
of Burma” by Chhibber,1934, which affected the central Myanmar, are the Thayet
earthquake of 24th August and the Pyay (Prome) earthquake of 26th August of the same
year, 1858, respectively. Source parameters of these earthquakes have not been
precisely estimated, and the earlier data have only magnitudes based on felt reports,
approximate locations and date of earthquake occurrences. The 1975 earthquake event
and the 2003 earthquake event have been analyzed for the first time by the author
within the context of the present-day understanding of earthquake mechanism. Seismic
sections, aeromagnetic data (MOGE Report) and the fault characteristics shown in
Pivnik,1999 and satellite images were used to understand the basic structural 34 setup that
mainly controls the earthquake mechanism.

Tectonic Setting
The Central Myanmar Basin terrane is a N-S oriented, elongated belt for
1100 km in Myanmar and is dominated by NE- to ENE-trending faults. The dominance
of NE-to ENE-to EW trending faults is suggestive of a NNW-SSE striking extensional
stress direction. This extensional stress appears to have favored the formation of normal
faults. The terrane is bounded to the west by the Kabaw fault and to the east by the
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Sagaing fault. The terrane has been sliced into several crustal blocks from margin of
lithospheric plate by normal faulting. These blocks are moving laterally as a result of
northward movement of the India plate with respect to the Sundaland plate, in which
some blocks are being compressed and uplifted and some are being stretched and
sagging, forming Basin-Uplift province along the Central Myanmar Basin terrane. Salin
basin is one of the pull-apart basins and it runs for more than 200km in the N-S
direction between 20°N Uplift and 22° N Uplift. The east edge of the basin is bounded
with a NNW-SSE trending dextral strike-slip fault accompanied by a series of narrow
elongated anticlines. To the east of these anticiles, a further belt of anticlines exposed in
the plains to the north of Taungdwingyi.
In this tectonically active continental rift setting, the majority of strain is
accommodated along border faults of the basins. Slip on these faults lead to uplift,
where they interact with other bounding faults of adjacent basins. Within theses transfer
zones, fault may accommodate differential horizontal or vertical displacement between
adjacent basins. Deformation in the basin-uplift region involves a combination of
normal and strike-slip displacement. The present day deformation field of the Basin3
Uplift province is revealed by the patterns of seismicity (Fig.1) and 58 horizontal velocity
estimates data derived from GPS show 8mm/yr between basin and uplift(Rangin, 1996-
1999).

The Structures of Basin-Uplift Province

Beginning from the south to the north, there is the Central Andaman Basin which has
been classified as an oblique convergence extensional basin rather than a typical back65
arc basin (Curray,et al.2005). Extension and rifting occur at around 11 Ma, and
extension through seafloor spreading since 4-5 Ma (Khan et al.2005). To the northeast
of it, transverse structural elements of uplift area trending NE-SW or ENE-WSW occur
between Latitudes 14° N and 15° N. To the north of this uplift, there is Mottama Basin
with parallel transform faults trending in the N-S direction which are separated by pull70
apart basins floored with basalts. Southern termination of the Sagaing fault was
observed with extensional horse-tail structure in this basin. Volcanoclastic rocks were
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Fig.1. The Yangon Earthquake (M=7, 1927); the Pagan Earthquake (M=6.8, 1975); the
Taungdwingyi Earthquake (M=6.6, depth-10 km(NEIC), 2003) and the Thayet
Earthquake (M=5.4, depth-14 km (USGS), 2007) are the significant earthquakes which
have occurred in plate-interior setting.
observed below and interbedded with the Miocene sequences. The Ayeyarwady Delta
basin is in the NNW-to NNE- striking basin and is northern extension of Mottama
basin. Gravimetric and seismic surveys reveal general NNE and N-striking, elongated
structural trends with relatively broad culmination. In the northern part of the
Ayeyarwady Delta basin, there is Pyay basin in the N-S direction which is 80 km long.
Additionally, there is a narrow E-W extension between Rakhine Western Ranges to the
west and Bago Yoma to the east, which form the Pyay Embayment. ENE striking
transverse faults as well as NW-SE and NE-SW trending diagonal faults are present in
the basin. Asymmetrical folds with special culmination along their crests in NW-SE or
NNW-SSE are found in the basin. The 20° N uplift area with locally 81 exposed Oligocene
rocks separate the Pyay basin from the Salin basin in the north. This uplifted area is
occupied with Pre-Irrawaddian sequences over a great distance and expressed as a
group of folds associated with steeply dipping faults. It consists of a series of en echelon
folds. To the north of 20° N uplift, the Salin basin runs in NNW and N-S direction and the
generally NW-SE and NNW-SSE trending folds are elongated and narrow and are cut by a
great number of faults. The Chauk-Yenangyat asymmetrical fold with an east dipping thrust
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fault on the eastern flank and countless transverse faults with a ENE-WSW strike and NE
and NW oriented diagonal faults break the anticline into individual sections. The Salin basin
begins with 20°N uplift and ends in the north at a structural uplift, the 22° N Uplift. To the
northeast and north-north-east of the Salin basin, there is the Chindwin Basin from latitude
22° to 26°, with a length of 500 km and a width of up to 160 km, occupying the largest sub-
basin in the Central Myanmar Basin. At about latitude 26° N, the N- and NNW- striking
uplifted ridge composed of metamorphic and plutonic rocks, with 90 km width, transversely
separates the Chindwin basin from the Hukawng basin running in an NE direction. It is
bounded by the NE- and ENE- trending Rakhine Western Ranges in the northern part. The
Shweb-Monywa basin is oblique to the Sagaing fault and bounded by the Cenozoic volcanic
rocks to the west. The Wuntho Massif to the north and in the east has Monywa volcanic
occurrences which is the northern part of Mt. Popa. To the south,the Sittoung basin is
located between Bago Yoma to the west and the Shan Boundary fault on the east. Bago
anticlinorium to the east of Pyay basin has been formed between Bago fault and Sagaing
fault due to crustal shortening and topographic 104 uplift related to a series of contraction
step-over. It is the largest push-up for 400 miles long and 40 miles wide in the Central
Myanmar Basin (Bender, 1983).

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